Film Review
John Ford's last great western is one of his most popular, in spite of
the fact that it is awash with clichés and, being shot mainly in
the studio, lacks the epic quality and grand panoramic vistas of
director's earlier films.
The
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is also one of Ford's bleakest
westerns, a sombre elegiac film which deconstructs the myth of the Old
West, showing that America's slow transition to a civilised law-abiding
nation of unified states was far from easy, and far from painless.
In his later films, John Wayne was often criticised for his
characterless performances but here his inexpressive persona and
apparent inability to emote in front of a camera are put to good use,
allowing the actor to create a character that is both convincing as a
man and also a potent symbol of the values and traditions of the Old
West. Equally, James Stewart is a perfect casting choice
for the part of the naive lawyer Stoddard, although, with Stewart now
in his early fifties, it takes some imagination to accept the actor as
a fresh faced law graduate. Lee Marvin's Liberty Valance may be
crude and heavily clichéd but somehow this O.T.T. portrayal of
Old West villainy suits the film which is, after all, intended as an
ironic reinterpretation of the western genre, not a straight rehash of
what went before.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
is impressive but it is by no means perfect. Some of Ford's
trademark comedy sits ill alongside some of the film's darker moments
and most, if not all, of the supporting characters are little more than
bland thumbnail sketches, so thinly drawn that they barely even
register as caricatures. Whilst it may not deserve the excessive
praise that some reviewers lavish on it, the film is certainly one of
Ford's last great works, a solid, well-directed western that engages
both the heart and the intellect.
© James Travers 2009
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Next John Ford film:
The Black Watch (1929)
Film Synopsis
Senator Ransom Stoddard arrives in the small Midwest town of Shinbone
to attend the funeral of a renowned local hobo, Tom Doniphon. The
newspaper editors are surprised by Stoddard's presence and invite him
to give an interview. Stoddard relates how he came to meet
Doniphon many years before and the important part he played in his
future career. Having just graduated from law school, the young
Ransom Stoddard was a man of ideals who saw no necessity to carry a
gun. For him, the Wild West was a thing of the past and it was
time for all American communities to come together and build a
civilised law-abiding society. Stoddard's idealism was tested
when his stagecoach was attacked by a ruthless outlaw named Liberty
Valance. Robbed and beaten by his attacker, Stoddard was taken to
the nearest town, Shinbone, where he was cared for and offered
work. Stoddard's protector, a man named Doniphon, warned him that
his fine words and ideals were useless when dealing with men like
Liberty Valance. The only language that such bandits understand
is that of the six-shooter...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.